Oracle Applications Day 2019: Highlights

On the 10th of October 2019, our customer-focused Oracle Applications Day brought together a whole host of rich Oracle content for 200-plus delegates. Taking place at The King’s Fund, London, the jam-packed agenda for the day covered everything from PeopleSoft, Oracle ERP Cloud, Taleo, Oracle E-Business Suite and JD Edwards, plus an additional Business Strategy & Technology stream addressing business transformation requirements.

With different streams of keynotes, talks and demonstrations taking place throughout the day, Version 1, Oracle and customer experts were on hand to deliver the diverse agenda. The following blog post will highlight key talks, streams and events that occurred throughout the day.

Driving Customer Success through Existing Oracle Applications’ Investments

Paddy’s introductory keynote took place in the Burdett Suite and set the scene for the day, giving attendees an overview of the 60 plus sessions to come. Paddy established the purpose of the day: to bring customers together to help drive greater value and success for their businesses through their Oracle applications investments. Bringing together our customer community, along with the latest insights and updates from OpenWorld and real-world subject matter expertise from Version 1 was vital to helping customers on their Oracle Applications journey. A video showcasing Version 1 Innovation Labs‘ Digital ERP Solution was also played, highlighting the endless possibilities of Digital ERP Innovation at Version 1.

PeopleSoft

With three dedicated streams for the PeopleSoft community, those involved in PeopleSoft HCM, Payroll, Financials or Campus Solutions, were in for a full day of engaging content.

Rebekah Jackson, Oracle’s Vice President of Product Strategy for PeopleSoft, delivered a fantastic morning keynote focused on PeopleSoft and the latest Oracle OpenWorld Announcements, with attendees showing great interest in exciting new features, particularly chatbots. Conversational interfaces are planned to be integrated into PeopleSoft, which will allow stakeholders to use the same familiar chatbot interface they use in everyday life at work.

Visitors also heard from Josh Thornton (White & Case) and Russ Lakin (Version 1) on how we took PeopleSoft Manager Guided Self Service to the next level. Attendees were given advice around their PeopleSoft strategy:

• Ensure that technical documentation is available for all integrations
• Ensure there is a focus on compliance, with any certifications or questionnaires required for security purposes
• Allow plenty of time for unforeseen issues

E-Business Suite

Nadia Bendjedou, Vice President of Product Strategy (E-Business Suite) at Oracle, delivered a morning keynote focused on strategy and updates regarding E-Business Suite. Premier Support for E-Business Suite Release 12.1 will run until December 2021, whereas support for E-Business Suite Release 12.2 will run until at least 2030. With Oracle announcing certification of E-Business Suite on 19c Databases, customers can now leverage the latest Oracle Database technology with extended support fees waived for Oracle Database licenses through December 2020.

Nadia also highlighted some of the key enhancements for E-Business Suite users:

• Online Patching for Reduced Downtime
• Enterprise Command Centers for Simple, Actionable Info
• More Modern User Experience (UX) for Higher Productivity
• New and Enhanced Business Functions Across the Suite

JD Edwards

Mark Herwege, Senior Solution Engineer at Oracle gave an update on JD Edwards and the continuous innovation that is being integrated into the ERP software. Mark highlighted that elasticity and autonomous databases are two of the continuous enhancements for JD Edwards, turning repetitive tasks over to automation.

The investment strategies for JD Edwards focused on digital transformation, user experience, operational simplification, and a range of technology integrations, highlighted below:

• Process automation
• User interface (mobile)
• Real-time machine to machine data (IoT)
• Cloud Integration (SaaS, PaaS)
• Third Party Integrations
• Emerging technologies

Premier support for EnterpriseOne 9.2 has also been announced to last until 2030.

HCM Cloud

Tracy Martin, Senior Director of HCM Cloud Strategy at Oracle provided an update on the latest Oracle OpenWorld announcements for HCM Cloud. Tracy highlighted that Oracle continues to bring innovation to HCM Cloud across all fronts, including areas such as Chatbots, Machine Learning, AI, Blockchain, User Experience or further depth and breadth within HR functionality.

Digital Assistants are considered to become the “new normal”, which will allow end-users to receive instant answers to HR queries all day, every day. The branding on slide decks and enterprise systems will now sport a new, softer “Redwood” theme, which will replace the stark Oracle red branding. “Redwood” is expected to be introduced to HCM Cloud next year.

Taleo

The Taleo stream opened with a keynote from Fabrice de Carné Carnavalet, Senior Director for the Talent Acquisition Solutions that Oracle offers in the Cloud. Version 1 ran an interesting session for attendees which explained the differences between Oracle Taleo Cloud and Oracle Recruit Cloud, with Oracle showcasing that they now have two talent acquisition solutions: Taleo for standalone customers and Oracle Recruit Cloud for HCM Cloud Customers.

Oracle also highlighted that they are now heavily investing in Taleo Fluid Recruiting, which is projected to be completed by 2020. All Taleo clients were advised to move to Fluid Recruiting by 2020. Telecommunications organisation, Sky, walked attendees through how they have transformed their own volume recruitment by integrating video interviewing and assessment software, Launchpad, with Taleo.

ERP Cloud

Liam Nolan, Vice President, Cloud Applications Development for EMEA, at Oracle began the day by providing an update on the latest Oracle OpenWorld announcements for ERP Cloud. For all Oracle ERP Products, be it those under the ‘Apps Unlimited’ umbrella (E Business Suite, JD Edwards or PeopleSoft) or those under the Oracle ERP Cloud Suite of applications, visitors were able to learn about the available tools and techniques for automated testing from Version 1’s Nic Wood. There is a continuous demand for mobile working and Version 1’s David Baines showed visitors the opportunities that are available to Oracle users, the things that can be considered before deploying them and a live demonstration of some of the mobile apps for both E-Business Suite and Cloud.

Business Strategy & Technology

In the Business Strategy & Technology Stream, sessions focused on helping customers digitally transform and extend their investment in Oracle applications to meet their ongoing business needs. This included the automation and digitisation of processes through tools and add-ons, enablement and innovation through Cloud adoption, cost optimisation and delivering improved quality of service through Managed Services.

Networking

The Oracle Applications Day was a fantastic opportunity for customers to network with their peers. One-to-one meetings were scheduled ahead of time, allowing customers to speak to subject matter experts from Version 1 and Oracle on an array of IT services, ranging from Application Modernisation to Oracle Cloud.

UKOUG Partner of the Year Awards 2019

Version 1 attended the UKOUG Partner of the Year Awards at the Kimpton Fitzroy, London, on the 3rd October, 2019. We are delighted to announce that Version 1 was awarded 4 Gold awards and 2 Silver awards in the following categories:

• UKOUG Data Integration Partner of the Year Award – Gold
• UKOUG ERP Partner of the Year Award – JDE/E-Business – Gold
• UKOUG Managed Services (Outsourcing and Operations) Partner of the Year Award – Applications – Gold
• UKOUG Managed Services (Outsourcing and Operations) Partner of the Year Award – Technology – Gold
• UKOUG Platform Partner of the Year Award – Silver
• UKOUG Database Partner of the Year Award – Silver

Oracle OpenWorld Key Takeaways

The Oracle Applications Day brought the latest updates direct from Oracle OpenWorld to the UK, ensuring visitors didn’t miss any key takeaways from Oracle’s largest customer event. Oracle OpenWorld is held annually in San Francisco, with over 60,000 attendees from 145 countries. To find out more about the key takeaways from Oracle OpenWorld 2019, click on the article below.

Version 1 Demonstrating the ‘Art of Possible’ at Oracle OpenWorld 2019

About Version 1

The go-to partner for Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Oracle Cloud Applications. We are committed to continuous innovation in Oracle applications and helping customers digitally transform through the next generation of Cloud applications. Get in touch with Version 1 to explore how Innovation could benefit your business.